penumbra media & design

Matthew Hudson | August 29, 2009

In our last posting, we were telling you the story of our “service” experience in Michael’s, a national arts and crafts store chain.

As you know, I was not getting treated with much appreciation as I stood under the Customer Care Center sign in the store.

And, I certainly was not going to stand for this - especially from someone wearing a button that said, We love our customers. “Sorry, sir, this is our policy” as she directed me to the scotch-taped sing on the counter. “No receipt means I have to charge the 20% fee. Its our policy.”

I asked to speak to her manager who in turn spoke to the store manager and then the store manager came over and had me explain it all again. The store manager then said to the cashier as if I was not there (in her best curt voice) “just do it for him this time, but only this one time.” And then she walked away - no smile, no thank you, nothing.

the moral of this story is simple. Your culture drives your service. I do not care how many buttons you have printed (see “flair” in Office Space) or signs you have posted or marketing slogans you coin and play in cute jingles on XM radio. The service your employees will deliver is based on the culture they live in.

Signs do not make a culture, behaviors and values do. Obviously, in this store, service is valued as policy and nothing more. And here is why.

As I was leaving the store, 2 men carrying briefcases were entering. Aha! Our 26 years in retail told us that people with briefcases are not shoppers. District Manager with his Regional Manager! It has to be! So I returned inside to eavesdrop and then I heard it. The first thing the DM wanted to look at when he got there was their returns history.

No wonder they were so uptight; they knew they were about to get blasted for it. Blasted in the Customer Care Center!

In this case, the culture values what the boss values and the boss values controlling returns and exchanges - NOT making loving on their customers like the buttons said.

Now is this just a case of this one store and not indicative of the whole company? Well, that would be another blog post, now wouldn’t it!

Part 3 coming up…

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Matthew Hudson | August 25, 2009

The best part about traveling is that you get all kinds of examples and stories to share -ones that are too good, so good that you could not have made them up. they have to be true.

This one involves Micheal’s, an arts and crafts store. We were planning an event and were making the centerpieces ourselves so that they would match everything perfectly (See Everything Speaks post.)

the first set of containers we bought did not look good. So we sent someone to get a different version. (A part of this story that made it more frustrating is that we had to go to several stores to get the amount we needed and were never offered to have them gathered for us.) Anyway, when the person got back with the new size containers (which looked great) we realized on the receipt that the cashier only charged us for 1 container and not 8 (which is what we got.)

So, I took the original containers back to Michael’s to return them. Now, I went back to the store where we got most of the original ones, not the store where we got mischarged. I explained to the cashier that we had not been charged correctly at the other store and that we actually owed more. She gladly rung up the other 7 containers for me. Then I asked to return the original containers. She looked at the receipt and said, “this is only for 4 of the items.”

“Yes,” I replied, “we had to go to multiple stores to get them.” “Well, I will have to charge you a 20% restocking fee for the 5 from the other stores since you do not have a receipt.”

Yes, my jaw dropped like yours. I had just brought to their attention they had lost money on my transaction and that they undercharged me. The amount was about $50. The containers we were returning were actually less then the new ones. (Am I confusing anyone here or are you following that if I had not been honest about the other store it would have been cheaper for me!)

Well, I certainly was not going to stand for this - especially from someone wearing a button that said, We love our customers. “sorry, sir, this is our policy” as she directed me to the scotch-taped sing on the counter. “No receipt means I have to charge the 20% fee. Its our policy.”

Tune in next time to see how this story plays out. And keep in mind, its a cultural thing!

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Matthew Hudson | August 21, 2009

“I am accountable for ensuring on time deliveries for our customers.”
“I am the main conduit for information for our team to stay connected to what is happening in the home office.”
“I am responsible for creating the materials needed to sell our products.”
“I am in charge of customer delight.”

All of these statements are in response to the question, “what do you do?” the most common ‘get to know you’ question we all use in everyday lives. First we say, “where are you from?” then we ask “what do you do?” Its just how us humans are wired.

The paradigm shift we are suggesting is to create a culture when people feel empowered, responsible and accountable for their role. In the above examples, the answers could have been..
“I’m a delivery driver for Staples.”
“I’m the communications manager for Sysco.”
I am the marketing manager for Genesco.”
“I am every employee of the organization.” (Honestly, wouldn’t you love to hear that last line come from all your employees?

If you have culture of titles in your organization, start by shifting the conversation from the title to what they do - after all, that is actually the question being asked! Teach your people to think and behave in this manner. There are hundreds of people who work in your company (if not thousands) and every day the same question gets asked - only his time it is more about “how do you fit here and do I salute you?”

This is another one of our easier said than done suggestions, but one that can have a huge impact on your culture. Try it.

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Matthew Hudson | August 17, 2009

We work with companies who constantly tout “empowered” environments and trust in employees. Yet, invariably, we will always find a ton of cultural evidence that suggests the opposite. Things like complicated approval processes or sign-offs.

No matter how empowered the execs think the org is, the proof is in the culture. Its funny how even as we are going through the proposal phase with a client for new business that we keep getting held up because the “empowered” person we have been dealing with this whole time still needs his boss’ and her boss’ approval before moving forward. (actually, we have gotten pretty good at keeping this from happening now.)

Most companies have cultures of “titles”. who you are and what power you have and how I should treat you is based on your title. I remember my time in corporate as a COO. I would always give me card out with my personal cell phone number to employee and tell them to contact me if they needed anything. I really meant it. But how many calls do you think I got? You are right. All they saw was COO, they never saw the person. This was something we had to change in our culture and we went to work on it and did.

But here is my thought for the day. Imagine if you will, a place where when you ask someone what they do instead of answering “I am the Director for Planning and Inventory for a big firm in Austin” they would answer “I am responsible for making sure the sales team in our company has the inventory they need in stock and ready to ship when they sell it.”

See the difference?

We’ll talk more about this in our next post.

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